Article I. Definitions

As used in the compact, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

a.    “Broker” means any intermediate person who handles, treats, processes, stores, packages, ships or otherwise has responsibility for or possesses low-level waste obtained from a generator.

b.    “Carrier” means a person who transports low-level waste to a regional facility.

c.    “Commission” means the Appalachian States Low-Level Radioactive Waste Commission.

d.    “Disposal” means the isolation of low-level waste from the biosphere.

e.    “Facility” means any real or personal property, within the region, and improvements thereof or thereon, and any and all plant, structures, machinery and equipment, acquired, constructed, operated or maintained for the management or disposal of low-level waste.

f.    “Generate” means to produce low-level waste requiring disposal.

g.    “Generator” means a person whose activity results in the production of low-level waste requiring disposal.

h.    “Hazardous life” means the time required for radioactive materials to decay to safe levels, as defined by the time period for the concentration of radioactive materials within a given container or package to decay to maximum permissible concentrations as defined by federal law or by standards to be set by a host state, whichever is more restrictive.

i.    “Host state” means Pennsylvania or other party state so designated by the Commission in accordance with Article III of this compact.

j.    “Institutional control period” means the time of the continued observation, monitoring and care of the regional facility following transfer of control from the operator to the custodial agency.

k.    “Low-level waste” means radioactive waste that:

1.    Is neither high-level waste or transuranic waste, nor spent nuclear fuel, nor by-product material as defined in Section 11(e)(2) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 as amended; and

2.    Is classified by the federal government as low-level waste, consistent with existing law; but does not include waste generated as a result of atomic energy defense activities of the federal government, as defined in Public Law 96-573, or federal research and development activities.

l.    “Management” means the reduction, collection, consolidation, storage, packaging or treatment of low-level waste.

m.    “Operator” means a person who operates a regional facility.

n.    “Party state” means any state that has become a party in accordance with Article V of this compact.

o.    “Person” means an individual, corporation, partnership or other legal entity, whether public or private.

p.    “Region” means the combined geographical area within the boundaries of the party states.

q.    “Regional facility” means a facility within any party state which has been approved by the Commission for the disposal of low-level waste.

r.    “Shallow land burial” means the disposal of low-level radioactive waste directly in subsurface trenches without additional confinement in engineered structures or by proper packaging in containers as determined by the law of the host state.

s.    “Transuranic waste” means low-level waste containing radionuclides with an atomic number greater than 92 which are excluded from shallow land burial by the federal government.